Hyderabad Police arrests 5 foreign nationals for catfishing men over Facebook

Telangana's Rachakonda Police has arrested 5 foreign nationals for pretending to be women and duping men over Facebook. The police informed that these 5 men were impersonating customs officials to siphon off lakhs. The Rachakonda police in November 2020 received a complaint from a man who said that he had befriended a woman named Sophia Alex over Facebook and communicated WhatsApp and phone calls, in a fraud that is called catfishing.

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Telangana: 5 foreign nationals arrested

Listing out details of the complaint, they had received in November 2020, the Rachakonda Police informed that the victim was tricked into believing that Sophia Alex was brought up in Australia, had a daughter and resided in London, UK. The man who filed the complaint was told that Sophia had arrived in Mumbai and will visit Hyderabad to meet him. However, the victim later received a phone call from one of the fraudsters pretending to be a woman custom official.

The man was later tricked into believing that Sophia had brought with her 75,000 pounds in cash, gold and mobile phones for which was caught by customs. Then, the fake customs official demanded money from the victim to get Sophia's money and gold released by customs. 

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As per the police reports, the Hyderabad man had spent Rs 4.83 lakh over multiple transactions before realising that he was taken for a ride by fraudsters. he then approached the Rachakonda Cybercrime police on November 28, 2020, seeking action. Acting upon the complaint registered, the local police then traced the fraudsters to Delhi, after which the team of police officers raided the premises and arrested 5 men Akpalu Godstime a native of Republic of Ghana, Adjel Gift Osas and P Kromah Oyibo N natives of the Republic of Liberia, P Ehigiator Daniel and Nkeki Confidence David natives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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Upon arresting the 5 men, police came to know that the gang had created several fake Facebook profiles and had duped several men across the country. The police identified three other cases that were registered with the Hyderabad cyber crime police against the gang and suspect more cases to surface. The gang after duping their victims destroyed the SIM cards.

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